Ground Training

Aviatrix

Aviatrix

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Messages
100
Location
New York
Display Name
Display name:
Aviatrix
I'm just curious how many people used those programs like King or Sporty's for their ground training and how many people just worked with a CFI? Did some people do both?
 
I used Sporty's and FAA publications mostly, and a very kind friend let me have access to the King online videos for some exam prep. I didn't use the CFI for any ground instruction that I can recall, other than clearing up a few points or walking me through things that you can read about for hours, or DO in five minutes and understand completely. I paid the CFI by the hour.
 
I'm going to a Part 141 school, so the ground is part of their curriculum. Had I chosen to go with a Part 61 instructor, I would have done all the ground on my own and saved a bit of money.

That being said, the school I use has the King videos available as supplemental material. I think they are good, if a bit dated...

When I do instrument I will just do ground on my own and take the written before even starting with the instructor.
 
I'd hazard to guess that most CFIs will expect you to do a lot of homework to learn your groundschool material. It's a lot cheaper for you to do it that way, too. The more you learn on the ground, the less time you'll be paying your instructor his hourly rate to spoonfeed you.

Doing lots of home study is absolutely the best way to minimize your training costs.

- Russ
 
Aviatrix said:
I'm just curious how many people used those programs like King or Sporty's for their ground training and how many people just worked with a CFI? Did some people do both?
Click to expand...

:rofl: Neither one of those existed when I did mine. I pretty much did my private on my own, and the rest were college courses.
 
I did the PPL/IR with a book and my CFI assigning me work and testing my knowledge.

All the instructor ratings I used the king school DVDs.

In my limited experience teaching, I find that the "self-study" courses are useful, but I still need to spend ground time with the student making sure that he really does have the appropriate level of learning on the topics... at least the application level and shooting for the correlation level. So the self-study courses have the potential to reduce, but not eliminate, the ground knowledge training. How much they reduce that time with the CFI is dependent on the effort the student puts into it. I've had students that would come in with their "homework" done and clearly ready to apply the knowledge, and maybe having one or two questions. For those guys it was maybe 10 minutes of ground review of the lesson. I've had other students come in and it was clear that they'd not done the work or tried to rush it right before the lesson. Those students somewhere along the line got a few extra hours of ground instruction playing catch-up.
 
I'm lucky - a local college has a very strong aviation curriculum, so I took both PP and IFR there. Very cheap, since I didn't want college credit I didn't have to pay the regular tuition rates. Chat with the CFII (who also went thru the same college program and got the BS) and he signed off for me to take the written.

Yes, it took an entire semester each time, but it also took that much time (and more) to get thru the flying part. I liked the ability to ask questions in class and not worry about the hourly rate. The CFII liked it too, since he knew exactly what I was learning in class and he didn't have to worry about it.
 
I just studied from books and worked with my CFI. The closest things to videos in those days were called "filmstrips". :dunno:
 
write-stuff said:
I'd hazard to guess that most CFIs will expect you to do a lot of homework to learn your groundschool material. It's a lot cheaper for you to do it that way, too. The more you learn on the ground, the less time you'll be paying your instructor his hourly rate to spoonfeed you.

Doing lots of home study is absolutely the best way to minimize your training costs.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

My CFI assigns chapters for me to study on my own, and I just use him to clarify points I don't understand (usually when taxiing or waiting for clearance as we're "on the clock" then anyway). Then he questions me occasionally on things I am expected to know, usually at inopportune times like when I'm calculating a route deviation in-flight, or turning base to final.
 
Last edited:
I borrowed 5 year old sports vcr tapes and watched them twice, worked through books. cfi nor dpe questions never stumped me. So i spent next to nothing on ground school.
 
Ateaist said:
:yeahthat:

My CFI assigns chapters for me to study on my own, and I just use him to clarify points I don't understand (usually when taxiing or waiting for clearance as we're "on the clock" then anyway). Then he questions me occasionally on things I am expected to know, usually at inopportune times like when I'm calculating a route deviation in-flight, or turning base to final.
Click to expand...

Sounds like he's basically leaving it up to you. That's not uncommon among instructors. Just make sure that you study the books thoroughly and note that you aren't studying simply to pass the written test.
 
write-stuff said:
Sounds like he's basically leaving it up to you. That's not uncommon among instructors. Just make sure that you study the books thoroughly and note that you aren't studying simply to pass the written test.
Click to expand...

Of course. In all fairness it's not really a lot - the AFH and Pilot's Handbook are combined about about a fifth of a semester's worth of law school reading, and I figure I have about 6 months to learn it all.
 
For the private, I had a ground school.

For my instrument rating, I just did self study. Of course, working military air traffic control and landing systems kind of made self study easy.
 
No "school".... 'Read on my own, did every online thing I could find, Rod Machado stuff, Cleared for Take-Off Book, Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. CFI would ask questions, to see how I was doing.
 
Everskyward said:
I just studied from books and worked with my CFI. The closest things to videos in those days were called "filmstrips". :dunno:
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought of filmstrips in years! I remember the excitement of seeing the little projector set up in class...the prospect of a reprieve from boring lectures and blackboard scrawling.

But I digress.

I used books for all my prep. Tried to watch the King videos when I added my Double-I but felt homicidal urges after an hour of their humor so discontinued use rather than risk my television.
 
You also might want to take a look at our software, we are fairly new (only have been around for 2 years now), but have enjoyed 100% customer satisfaction. Our main goal is to focus on helping you pass the written but its like taking a 3 day ground school. Every subject is covered and it will probably save you 10-20 hours in ground training one on one with your instructor because rather than teaching you mindless memorization of question and answer we actually teach you the material in depth using a variety of teaching aids and with the latest software products to keep you engaged and captivated through out the entire course (about 13 hours of presentations for the instrument). If you would like to check out our teaching methods for yourself visit

http://passfaaexams.com/free-demo-downloads/

and download one of our free demos and let us know what you think
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top